This year I was able to help by cooking and packing into bags, helping at the boxing party and I will be helping sell it at a craft fair.

Oh, and by the way, the online store is open as of today so if you want to buy some great, handmade toffee and support a great cause then please buy a box.

My only warning is it is addicting and we are selling out earlier and earlier each year even though we make over 4,000 pounds.

100% of our profits go directly to 40 well-deserving students from the slums of Kenya, each with their own personal story of difficult circumstances and even stronger resolve. Affectionately referred to as our “Candy Kids,” these secondary students are now receiving a full year of education, room and board, mentoring, an emergency medical fund, and summer camp experiences during their holiday months.

Do you drink coffee? Do you drink coffee at Starbucks? Well, I am not a coffee drinker, but I would randomly go to Starbucks with friends and have a hot chocolate in the winter or an iced tea or lemonade in the summer.

Well, since Starbucks changed their reward program I don’t spend enough money to collect or keep my points. So, as of this Saturday I will have zero points (there is no way I was going to collect 80 points in the last couple of months). I don’t know if this is goodbye to Starbucks or not for me. I know I won’t be suggesting to friends that we meet there.

And my first thought was that dog looks like Pepper (our ‘red’ Golden Retriever). I knew Pepper needed a sweater to keep her warmer when she slept out in the dog house so I went looking the next time I was in the local Target store.

Target was out of the dog sweater that was shown in the ad, but I was able to get Pepper a sweater.

Here she is modeling it. She definitely doesn’t look as happy as the dog in the ad, but she didn’t complain when we went to put it on her before bedtime. And I am happy to say that it lasted through the winter and will definitely get more use this coming winter.

In June, Nevada (and at least California) are having elections for local supervisors, etc. In our area it is becoming clear that the people running for office are either for big growth or against it (i.e. want the area to stay like it is). In trying to decide who to vote for I am realizing I have to decide why we live here and how/if we want it to change in the next 5 to 10 years.

We moved here 20+ years ago since it was a semi-rural area with a technology company where we could get jobs. Over the years we have had the opportunity to move to different ‘big’ cities for jobs (in different states). We have always decided it was not best for our family with one reason being we didn’t want to live in a ‘big’ city (and deal with everything related to it – higher crime, more traffic, potentially higher taxes, etc).

Nevada is becoming known as a potential place to move technology and other companies (Apple Inc. and Tesla Motors Inc. either have plants near Reno, NV or are in the process of building them now). Overall, I am happy to see this happen, but I think it needs to be carefully thought out. Not everyone wants to have their rural area changed into a ‘big’ city.

Where we live we have to drive to another town if we want to do major shopping in person (Costco, JCPenney, etc). We knew this when we moved here and I can at least say it has gotten easier. Now it is about a 20 mile drive instead of 50+ miles (which would turn into an all day event). Besides, a lot of the shopping can be done online and shipped to your house if you really don’t care to see the items in person.

Maybe it is just me, but it seems that when people move to a new area they want to change it to be similar to where they just left – i.e. want closer shopping, want specific restaurants to come in, etc, but they don’t want the things they didn’t like (more crime, higher taxes, more traffic, crowds, etc). Well, after living in the same semi-rural area for over twenty years I can tell you that as more shopping, restaurants, housing areas, etc come in you get more traffic, crime, etc. (For example, it is amazing how many articles in the local papers are about people stealing items from the local Walmart stores.)

I know people that drive 50+ miles to be able to live in a smaller area, but work in a larger city and I know people who have done the opposite (live in the larger city and travel to get to the smaller area for a job they want). It just depends upon what you want and sometimes where you have extended family.

So, why do you live where you do? Did you move there because of family, a job or what the area was like? Do you have plans on staying there long term? Are you happy with the way the area is changing (or not changing)? If not, maybe it is time to voice your concerns and get involved.

Well, a long time ago I posted my favorite blog #1. It was one of the first blogs I had found, but I haven’t seen a new post from her in a while.

Since I have multiple interested I figured it was best to start multiple favorite lists. This time it will be a clothing / fashion blog.

Grace & Beauty: http://www.cyndispivey.com/

I can’t even tell you where I found Cyndi’s blog, but I love reading her blog in the morning. Besides giving fashion trends, etc she has a Beauty for the Heart (Bible Verse) at the end of each post.

I love when she does a series – 27 Days of Spring was her latest. I just saved the latest series to a Pinterest board so I can review them again. Hopefully I can come up with some new clothing combinations for Spring/Summer without having to buy new clothes.

Cyndi’s personality comes through the blog and we have communicated through email a few times. I wish we lived closer, but it is a long way between Kentucky and Nevada.

Can you believe another post in one month? Maybe I am back to blogging…

My family finally got to go on a much needed vacation. We have been home for just over 24 hours and I am happy that I have gotten two loads of laundry already. I figured I would post some tips that came in really handy for us (in no special order).

Carry on luggage – Each family member was able to travel with one carry on suitcase and a backpack. Unless you have fancy events planned you will find that you will spend most of your time in your swimsuits and shorts anyways. But, at the same time you will sometimes find that the airlines will gate check your suitcases to your final destination (that happened to us each way). (We even had space in our bags to bring home new beach towels and a few other new items.)

Roll your clothes – If you aren’t on Pinterest you might not have seen the posts that by rolling your clothes you can store more in a drawer, etc. It really does work so I would suggest you try it next time.

Detangler spray & TSA liquid rules – Each person is able to take a quart-sized bag with your liquids/creams as long as each original container is less than 3 oz. The humidity and salt water makes it so we get more knots in our hair so this time I put some detangler spray in a small bottle and took some with us.

Bug spray – We usually go hiking when travel and this trip wasn’t any different. So, we bought a small container of bug spray and took it with us (in the quart-sized bag with our other liquids).

Breakfast in the room – The hotel we stayed at this time had a Keurig coffee maker and a mini fridge (no microwave). We bought instant oatmeal at the grocery store and made it for breakfast most mornings. (See #6, #7 and #11)

Metal fork and spoon – I packed one for each family member. These came in very handy. Note: You are not able to take sharp knives in the carry on luggage so I took a couple of plastic knives.

Plastic bowls – Since we had room in our suitcases (by not taking too many clothes and rolling what I did take) I was able to pack plastic bowls for each family member. These came in very handy for breakfast and for eating pie, etc (see #11).

Plastic Ziploc bags – I took a few new quart-sized ones and a couple of gallon-sized ones. These were very useful! (One thing we did daily was put ice in a bag and used it as an ice pack in our ice chest.)

Plastic, see-through water bottle – You can take an empty water bottle through security. We filled it with water at the airports and put ice inside of it when we traveled and it helped keep our snack foods and drinks cold.

Ice chest – The last few trips we have been able to put a collapsible ice chest in one of the suitcases. We used this to keep our drinks and snacks cold for when we went to the beach or driving around the island.

Grocery store – Usually when we arrive we look for a grocery store so we can buy some food. This time we lucked upon a local grocery store chain (Tamura’s Market) which definitely had cheaper prices than the big mainland chain that we found the first day. We were even able to find locally made (Ted’s Bakery) pie. The Macadamia Nut Cream Pie was really good!

So, hopefully these help you out and they will come in handy the next time we fly somewhere on vacation.

Well, this was going to be a post about how handy husband and I fixed our 12 year old Kenmore Front load washing machine. One night a couple of weeks ago when it was near the end of the final spin cycle it abruptly made HORRIBLE sounds (turns out the tub was swinging around and hitting the side of the walls and front of the washer). When handy husband and I took off the back we found that one of the shocks was broken.

So, I did a Google search on the model number and found out that RepairClinic.com had the shocks and a video that showed it was pretty easy to replace. So, I ordered the parts and we waited. While I was gone for a few days handy husband got the old shocks out (he said it was pretty easy) so all we would have to do was put the new ones in and start using it again.

The new shocks went in pretty easy and I tested out the machine by rinsing and spinning out a few towels. It was semi-louder than I remembered, but we thought it was okay. So, then I decided to wash the towels and a couple of pairs of jeans. It sounded fine until it got to the end of the spin cycle. I heard this HORRIBLE noise from the other end of the house. I went running for the laundry room to turn it off. I came upon Pepper (the Golden Retriever) in the dining room with her ears pulled back and running for the hall (which she has never been allowed to go down).

We first thought the washer was somehow unbalanced (which was weird since it was never unbalanced before). So, we added foam between the tub and the sides, but it still was making horrible noises. (The way Pepper was acting [ears back and wanting to leave the house] should have told us that it was making horrible noises before we could hear it.)

I did a YouTube search and found a video on how to take apart our washing machine. They discusses that the ‘spider’ which is inside the tub breaks. Uh, oh. Between that video and a comment from a friend we decided that was what was wrong. Since the spider is part of the drum it is very expensive to fix.

So, I went searching (Consumer Reports, Google, etc) and found out that Home Depot had the LG 4.0 Cu. ft. washer (WM3050CW) on Black Friday sale for $579 ($220 off). To be safe I ordered the 3 year protection plan for $80 (it says they will replace the unit if it is a Lemon).

So, the washing machine is on back order so we are without a washing machine until December 3rd. I am hoping we only have a few more trips to the laundry mat before it arrives and right now I am so happy that I don’t live too far from the laundry mat.

So, you all know that I try to be thrifty by doing DIY projects, making food from scratch, using coupons, find deals at the Thrift Stores and finding the best deals on the new items or services we need to buy. Well, another way is by keeping your family on a budget (and one that works is even better).

I am glad I got it since it reminded me of categories that I sometimes forget to budget for (like recently needing tires for our truck [which I found a sale on] and now it sounds like we will need them for the car also this year – ouch, definitely not something I planned for, but I will be looking for a deal on those also).

I will continue to tweak our budget using the tips in Jessi’s book.

So, would you like to win a FREE copy of the Build a Budget that Works book? I was given one copy to give away to a reader.

Between now and Thursday 20 November 2014 make a comment (which will be delayed in posting since I have to approve them) with your name and email address. After that I will pick a winner using a Random Number Generator (hey, I have to use something nerdy).

Have you heard of Bealls? I heard from friends that they are ‘big’ in Arizona (and Florida). Well, they have started opening stores in Northern Nevada.

When they had their grand opening the daughter and I were able to get boots on their ‘Buy One and Get One Free boots and shoes’ sale. (Oh, and mine are really comfortable and cute.)

I signed up for text messages from Bealls. This last week I got a 30% off ‘coupon’ on my smartphone. It was good on sale items and for more than one item. I didn’t think I needed anything, but I saved it anyways.

Well, the husband announced on Saturday morning that he needed some new shirts. We were going to town anyways so I figured we would stop in Bealls (he hadn’t been in there yet) and see what they had.

We found some nice shirts on sale for great prices and a jacket he needed.

So, we bought three shirts and the jacket for $89. I saved $130 and $36 of that came from my smartphone coupon. Not bad!

The other advantage was we didn’t have spend time (and money for gas) driving to a bigger city to look for clothes. Besides, he said he didn’t want to buy shirts from Costco since he would then look like everyone else at work 🙂

And, the old jacket has been relegated to the garage – yay! (Which is a good thing since one of the pockets ripped when we were walking Pepper this afternoon.)